THE DUC D'AUMALE LORD OF CHANTILLY
After the death of the last Condé, Chantilly was once more left desolate
and abandoned, since Prince Henri d'Orléans, the heir, was still a
child.
In 1820 his eldest brother, the Duc d'Orléans, inaugurated at Chantilly
the races which now rank as the French Derby, and which have continued
every year up to the present day. In connection with these races the Duc
d'Orléans, with the help of General Peel--a brother of Sir Robert
Peel--successfully undertook to breed English racehorses in France; and
Chantilly thus became a racing centre to which the _élite_ of French
society thronged every year to attend a "Meeting" which speedily became
one of the most famous in the annals of Sport. Residential accommodation
was then very restricted, for only the Petit Château and the Château
d'Enghien were available, the Grand Château not having yet been rebuilt.
The theatre where Molière, Racine, and Corneille produced their plays
had also vanished; a substitute was therefore improvised for these
occasions by the Comédie Française on the site of the present Library.
But Orléans Princes in those days had not so much leisure for mere
recreation as had their predecessors. In that same year the Duc
d'Orléans started for Algiers, taking with him the Duc d'Aumale, then
only eighteen. In spite of his youth on the premature death of his elder
brother he was entrusted with the command at Medea, where he
distinguished himself greatly, and became so beloved that the tiny
little Arab house which was his temporary residence there is still
preserved by a grateful nation. Engaging in a variety of operations in
Algeria, he brought this campaign to a brilliant ending in 1844 by a
victory over Abdul Kader; by which he succeeded in capturing the
concealed camp "La Smalah" where this chieftain and his staff had been
residing. This victory was principally due to the young Duke's great
energy and powers of endurance. In the Musée Condé there is a room
called "La Smalah," where we may still see numerous paintings and
sketches by Bellange and Horace Vernet illustrating this victorious
African campaign.
On the Duke's return from Algiers a marriage was arranged between him
and Caroline Auguste de Bourbon, daughter of the Prince of Salerno and
the Archduchess Marie Clementine, sister to Napoleon I's second wife,
Marie Louise of Austria. The nuptials were celebrated at Naples, and a
few days later the young pair left for France, where they were
impatiently expected by Queen Amélie, who was overjoyed to welcome one
of her own relatives as her son's bride.
It had been agreed that Chantilly should be the home of the newly
married pair; and in 1843 the architect Duban received instructions to
execute the necessary alterations; whilst to Eugène Lami--the same
artist who painted the portrait of the young Duchess which now hangs
over one of the doors of the Salle Caroline--was entrusted the
decoration of the various apartments. The ground-floor apartments of the
Petit Château--the same suite which the Grand Condé had selected for his
son Henri Jules and his children--were the rooms chosen for the personal
occupation of the Duke and Duchess.
In 1845 Louis Philippe paid a visit to his son at Chantilly, and made
himself very popular on that occasion by telling his coachman to drive
slowly across the Pelouse, because he had heard some ladies complain
that if he drove so fast no one could see him.
The title of Condé was conferred upon the Duc d'Aumale's eldest son,
born at Saint-Cloud, in the hope that he would revive so illustrious a
name. He was brought to Chantilly at the age of six months and remained
there until the Duchess joined her husband at Algiers, where he had been
nominated Governor. It was then proposed that extensive alterations at
Chantilly should be carried out during the absence of the Duke and
Duchess, and it was their intention to return thither in the following
summer. Fate, however, decreed otherwise. In February 1848 Louis
Philippe was compelled to abdicate in favour of his grandson, the Comte
de Paris, then a mere child; and to avoid further difficulties the
ex-King left immediately for England, and took up his residence at
Claremont under the style of Comte de Neuilly. This unfortunate event
obliged the Duc d'Aumale to resign his commission in the French army, to
which he had rendered such signal service. He thenceforward resided with
his family in England, chiefly at Twickenham, whither the larger part of
the artistic furniture and works of art from Chantilly were transported.
This was done at the special request of the Duchess, whose desire it was
to reconstitute as far as possible her lost home in the land of their
adoption. An Imperial Decree next commanded that all the properties of
the Royal Family of France should be sold within a year. The sale of
Chantilly--of course a fictitious one--was thereupon carried out by the
English bankers Coutts & Co., who sent Colonel McCall, a representative
of their own, to reside upon the estate. He dwelt in the Château
d'Enghien, and administered the whole of the property on behalf of the
Duke; whilst the Petit Château was let to Lord Cowley, who made it his
summer residence. Later it was successively occupied by the Comte
Dûchatel and the Duc de la Trémoille.
Twenty-three years later, after the disaster at Sedan and the fall of
the second Empire, the Duc d'Aumale was once more permitted to return to
Chantilly. Many changes had occurred during this long interval. The
Duchess, overcome with grief at the death of her eldest son, the Prince
de Condé, had died in exile. That young Prince was the last to bear this
illustrious name. He is said to have been highly gifted, and to have
possessed great qualities. He had been educated chiefly in England, and
had distinguished himself in his studies at Oxford, where he showed a
remarkable talent for languages. It was, however, his noble and
affectionate character that specially endeared him to his parents.
Like his father he was filled with a passionate devotion for his native
country. When the Crown of Greece was offered to the Duke, subject to a
condition that the Heir-Apparent must change his religion and his
nationality, although he had decided not to accept the honour, he
thought it his duty to communicate the proposal to his son. Whereupon
the lad wrote from Switzerland, where he was undergoing his military
training, the following reply: "Having had the high fortune to be born a
Frenchman and a Roman Catholic, I will ever remain French and Roman
Catholic."
Not long after this incident the young Prince started for a voyage round
the world, but before its completion died of typhoid fever at Sydney in
Australia.
The Duc d'Aumale on his return to Chantilly was accompanied only by his
younger son, the Duc de Guise, and it was not possible even then for him
to obtain possession of it. The Château and the Pavillon d'Enghien were
still occupied by Prussian officers, whilst in the town of Chantilly
there was a garrison of German soldiers who were holding the Mayor and
the Vicar as hostages.
It was under such sad circumstances that the heir of the Condés saw once
more the heritage from which he had parted so many years before. On
attempting to enter the Park unobserved by a side gate his distinguished
appearance awoke recognition in one of his old keepers who, bowing low
and with tears in his eyes addressed him by name. Whereupon the Duke
found it impossible to control his emotion.
As soon, however, as the German troops had departed, His Royal Highness
entered upon his property and, in spite of all the sorrows which had
fallen upon him since he had left his beloved home, he yet felt happy at
being once more on French soil, and able to educate his only surviving
son in his native land. The young Duc de Guise was sent to a college in
Paris, but spent his holidays at Chantilly; and father and son, as in
the time of the last two Condés, were often seen riding and hunting
together in the park and woods. From time to time also the Archduchess
Marie Clementine, mother of the late Duchess, visited at the Château.
In 1872 all the surviving members of the French Royal Family assembled
at Chantilly to celebrate the wedding of Princesse Marguerite, daughter
of the Duc de Nemours with Prince Ladislas Czartoysky; and on this
occasion the great battle-pieces representing the military glories of
the great Condé were replaced in the Gallery.
In the early spring of that year, King Edward and Queen Alexandra--then
Prince and Princess of Wales--paid a visit to the Duc d'Aumale; with
whom they had contracted a warm friendship during his residence in
England.
But just when calm and happiness seemed to have at last returned to
Chantilly, another heavy blow fell upon it. The young Duc de Guise was
struck down by typhoid fever and died after a few days' illness. With
his sudden death all plans for the improvement of the Château and estate
came to an abrupt standstill, for the heart-broken father had now to
realise that, as he himself mournfully put it, "_la dernière flamme de
son foyer était éteinte_."
A new scheme now took shape in the heart of the Lord of Chantilly: a
scheme at first kept to himself, and which had revolved in his mind long
before he made it public. He intended to take France by surprise. This
scheme was a no less magnificent one than to bestow Chantilly with all
its appurtenances and contents upon the French nation. Once more the
long interrupted design of the architect Duban, made before the exile of
the Duke and Duchess, was recommenced: this time by M. Daumet, who
undertook also the difficult task of rebuilding the Grand Château. After
years of labour there arose once more upon the vaults of this famous
fortress the present building, destined to become the Musée Condé, a
veritable palace of Literature and Art. Its architecture, in order to
harmonise with that of Montmorency's Petit Château, is directly copied
from sixteenth-century designs. But to erect the stately marble
staircase with its splendid gilt iron railings, an undertaking which
offered the greatest difficulties, it was necessary to pierce the solid
rock. The Chapel, adorned by an elegant spire and full of valuable
relics of the Montmorency and the Condé families, was also restored at
this time. It contains an altar of Senlis marble, the joint work of Jean
Bullant and Jean Goujon; and exquisite wood carvings, dated 1548, were
brought from Écouen, an old seat of the Montmorency family. In the
stained-glass windows (dated 1544) are represented the sons and
daughters of Anne de Montmorency, whose effigy and that of his wife,
Madeleine of Savoy, are painted on the wall by a modern painter from a
cartoon by Lechevallier Chevignard.[17] The fine bronze monument to
Henri II de Bourbon by Jacques Sarrazin has also found a permanent abode
in this chapel. It was saved by Alexander Lenoir and presented to the
Prince de Condé in 1815.
During the execution of these works Chantilly was frequently the scene
of very interesting family gatherings. Queen Christina of Denmark, on
the occasion of the marriage of her youngest son Waldemar to Princesse
Marie, eldest daughter of the Duc de Chartres, made a lengthy stay at
Chantilly; and not long afterwards Princess Marie Amélie, daughter of
the Comte de Paris, was betrothed here to the Duke of Braganza,
afterwards King of Portugal. But in that same year Republican France
suddenly pronounced a further sentence of banishment upon all claimants
to the French Throne--Royalist and Imperialist; in which order the Duc
d'Aumale was included. In his quality of a General in the French Army,
he protested against this, but without avail; and once more Chantilly
was deserted. But this time it was not for long; for on returning with a
heavy heart to his English home at Woodnorton and feeling his end
drawing near the Duke resolved to make known immediately the act of
munificence upon which he had so long decided. He therefore made public
his intention of leaving Chantilly with all its forests, parks and
lakes, and all its art-treasures to the care of the Members of the
Institut de France, in trust for the French Nation. This was his
dignified answer to the French Republic; and it made a deep and lasting
impression in France. Nor was this act of generosity without immediate
consequences, for shortly after a Decree signed by President Carnot was
sent to the Duke with the assurance that France would welcome him back.
[Illustration: PLATE XIX.
HENRI D'ORLÉANS, DUC D'AUMALE.
_Musée Condé._
Léon Bonnat.
_facing page_ 124]
On March 9, 1889 he returned to Paris, and his first act was to present
his thanks to the President, who seemed much touched by the words
which he uttered upon this occasion. A hearty welcome greeted him from
the people of Chantilly; and on his arrival at the station he was
accompanied by a vast crowd to the door of the Château. A medal was cast
in commemoration of this return, upon the obverse of which was a figure
contemplating France from afar and the word "_Spes_"; upon the reverse a
figure at the gates of the Château holding an olive-branch and the
inscription "_À S.A.R. Monseigneur le Duc d'Aumale; en souvenir du 11
mars 1889, les habitants de Chantilly reconnaissants_."
Subsequently an equestrian statue of the Duke was cast and placed near
the entrance of the Château by the people of Chantilly, who regarded him
and his ancestors as their benefactors. And it was here amongst his art
treasures that he spent the last years of his eventful life.
SECOND PART
_THE MUSEE CONDE_